Parents who hired a nanny online found she was beating their 11-month-old baby and throwing him around the room after they installed a hidden camera to check up on her.

Businessman Mark Tikhonov, 43, said he had been impressed with Larissa Ulyanova's credentials after finding her advert on the internet, and when he was around she had seemed attentive and caring for the baby boy.

But he became suspicious because the child seemed distressed every time he was handed over to Ulyanova, 53.

Tikhonov said: "I didn't for a second think she was abusing him, and I even took two weeks off work to try and help the pair of them get to know each other better.

"When I was around she was always caring and attentive."

Shocking: A still from the video shows the baby being attacked (Image: CEN)

But after his son's distress continued he decided to install a hidden camera, which captured these shocking images of the little boy barely able to walk being picked up and flung across the room onto the sofa, slapped on the face or having his legs knocked out from under him to force him to fall back down into his baby chair.

The slaps and the aggression were clearly designed to cause distress to the boy but at the same time not to leave marks that the parents would be suspicious.

The furious dad confronted the nanny when she turned up for work, and she fled the apartment and has not been seen since.

The parents have now filed a complaint with police in Chelyabinsk, Russia, who confirmed they were looking for her to question her over child cruelty.

Tikhonov said: "My little boy is now nervous and afraid and is going to need a lot of love and care to get over his ordeal.